alleluya! it’s spqr!

So, it may be raining again today, but yesterday was a gloriously sunshiney kind of day. To the point where siestas were required mid afternoon, just to regain some of the energy sapped by the sun and an early start. But it did offer some moments of appreciation for Auckland’s inner-city offerings, with regard to food and shopping. Especially food. That may be the prednisone talking, to some extent, but hey! If it means that brunch is more thoroughly enjoyed, so be it.

And it is on that theme, therefore, that I bring you some details of said loveliness, so that you too may enjoy what Auckland has to offer.

Wandering along Ponsonby Road towards K Rd (since the weather was simply too delicious to clamber onto a Link bus), the day started off in a splendid fashion when I finally checked out Shellshock, and bought myself a little pair of red glass butterfly earrings, and a itty bitty skull and crossbones ring (I’m on a major ring kick right now – when my latest Etsy find arrive, I’ll be sure to share a picture of my adorned fingers). With new jewellery about my person, we continued along, past some angry shouty 10am drunks hanging around on the city side of the K Rd overbridge, and sat ourselves down at Alleluya.

Alleluya and I go way back. Aside from the on-campus cafes, and the Robert Harris at the Whitcoulls I used to work at, I can safely say that it’s the cafe I have spent the most time and money at over the past few years. I started going there in 2006-ish, I guess, when I was 15/16 and discovering the joys of K Rd and op shops and attempting to be ‘cool’ in an artsy, indie kind of way. It’s probably where I first realised that coffee could be super delicious amazing. I would look longingly at the art in the windows, especially the stuff by Misery, and wish that it were mine.

Of course, now, six or so years later (oh jeez), coffee and me don’t get along as well as we used to, and whilst the breakfast burrito that I enjoyed a few years back may still be on their menu, its legumey goodness ain’t on mine. But goodness was still there to be had. The eggs benedict with ham was great, if a little small, but the size was ultimately fine with me, since it gave me an excuse to have brunch-dessert in the form of a slice of orange upside-down cake. Dom had the Spanish omelette, and all reports on the matter were positive. Delicioso!

Brunching was, naturally, following by some Queen Street shoppin’ – since Dom’s jetting off this evening, there were the requisite last minute purchases to be made at Kathmandu and the like. Fun fun! And after thoroughly exhausting ourselves, we retreated home to relax and recuperate to make sure we were all bright eyed and bushy-tailed for the evening’s planned exploits – an anniversary/going away dinner at SPQR.

We’ve been working our way around various Ponsonby Rd establishments since moving into the area in August, but despite our collective historical inclinations, we hadn’t yet made it to SPQR. But we did last night, and despite the platter we ordered never turning up (ultimately a good thing, because if there’s been feta and sun dried tomatoes as well as pizza bread, I don’t think I would have had space for my main), it was all delightful. There was a woman who looked suspiciously like Ladyhawke one table over from us, which was entertaining (a good follow up to spotting Phil Keoghan at Toru last weekend…), the pork belly was both free range and delicious, and Dom’s Italian fish stew (clearly he was into the Mediterranean dishes yesterday) was purportedly lovely too. The wine was good, the ambience was chatty but classy, it was just peachy.

Just peachy. And now it’s Sunday, and Dom’s disappearing this evening, and it’s time to get my write on.

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I'm Briar – Briar Lawry, if you were wondering which particular one. Raw Library is an anagram of my name and a place for my writing – about anything, in theory, but mostly about books, the music industry and chronic illness. And sometimes coffee.